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Glass Second Weekend Decline Much Larger Than Split

Glass' second weekend decline at the box office was much steeper than Split, but the film still finished in the top spot. The latest from director M. Night Shyamalan, Glass serves as the conclusion to the long-gestating Eastrail 177 trilogy that began with 2000's Unbreakable. With Shyamalan enjoying a mini-resurgence thanks to hits The Visit and Split, there was a lot of hope Glass could be another success, but things unfortunately didn't turn out that way. Reviews for Glass skewed mixed-to-negative, with many people leaving baffled by the plot twists and storytelling decisions. It's true the film has its admirers, but it's largely viewed as a disappointment.

That's somewhat reflected in the commercial performance to date. Thanks to its $20 million production budget, Glass has already turned a sizable profit at the box office, but its actuals were well below projected expectations. With January being a relatively quiet period at the multiplex, the hope for Glass was that it would have strong legs, but it's already suffered a big drop-off - especially when compared to its direct predecessor.

According to Box Office Mojo, Glass earned $19 million in its second weekend, raising its domestic total to $73.5 million. That figure is a 52.8 percent drop from its debut, nearly 20 percent more than Split's own second weekend decrease. Worldwide, Glass is now up to $162.6 million.

To be fair, this isn't exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Split was marketed as a standalone Shyamalan thriller starring James McAvoy, hiding its connections to Unbreakable until the premiere. It was then able to ride the buzz of that surprise reveal to a fruitful run. In contrast, Glass had a promotional campaign akin to a studio tentpole, positioning it as the first "event" title of 2019. Those kinds of projects can be front-loaded due to fervent fan anticipation and hype, so it isn't out of the ordinary for Glass to experience some kind of decline. That being said, the size of the drop-off speaks to how audiences have responded to the film, indicating there isn't a lot of interest in catching it on the big screen. Perhaps if Glass had better word-of-mouth, things would have been different. Back in December, Aquaman dropped only 23.2 percent between its first and second weekends.

It's worth wondering if Glass would have even repeated as weekend champion if it faced higher-profile competition. New releases really struggled to make an impact. Fantasy adventure The King Who Would Be King came in fourth place with $7.2 million, while neo-noir Serenity had to settle for an eighth-place finish with $4.8 million. Luckily for Glass, it still has one more week before critical darling The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part debuts, so it should be in decent shape to keep padding its totals through the early part of February. But after that, it'll likely really slide down the charts.